Anti-Migrant Hate: December 2007 Archives

I admire people that work to build unity where there is division. Building unity leads humanity in the direction of ideals. Building consensus is admirable, but compromising with hate is not.

In her Washington Post op-ed, "The Right Road to America?", Yale Law Professor Amy Chua compromises with hate. In an attempt to forge a middle ground between tolerance and toughness, she makes deals with the devil. The net result is an argument that rests on nativism.

Chua makes the fallacious argument that, within nations, "pluralism and diversity" leads to "violence and instability". Reading her op-ed, I couldn't help but be reminded of the lunatic mission statement of Frosty Wooldridge's website (Another front for NumbersUSA):

Dean Allen, a plump and friendly fellow sporting an
American-flag tie, told me that he runs something called Spirit of Liberty;
he's also helping Witherspoon's campaign. "Some of these people may be coming
in here to get jobs washing dishes, but some of them are coming in here to
hijack airplanes," he explained. "If you're down there trying to look at the
people coming across the border, maybe a lot of them are just motivated by
economics, and they want a job washing dishes or cutting grass. But I can't
tell Jose Cuervo from the Al Qaeda operatives by looking at them, because they
cut their beard off. It's like trying to get fly manure out of pepper without
your glasses on, you know? I mean, not a racist thing, but they're all brown
with black hair and they don't speak English and I don't speak Arabic or
Spanish, so if they don't belong here and they don't come here legally, I want
to know who's here."

Anytime someone prefaces a statement with, "I'm not a
racist, but . . ." make sure to turn your bulls%#t detector up a notch or
two.

It's alarming to consider that much of the animus and fear
behind anti-migrant politics right now is apparently attributable to a simple case
of mistaken identity.It bears repeating
since it hits me in the face like a sledgehammer: "They're all brown with black
hair and they don't speak English and I don't speak Arabic or Spanish."

Translation: They're different from me in ways I don't really
understand but that worry me, so they'd better make sure they keep their distance.

It was a lot of fun watching Kieth Olbermann lay the smackdown on Lou Dobbs for his complicity in hiring the same migrants that he rails against nightly. Yave wrote a brilliant post on this, and Duke writes that the blogosphere was way ahead of Olbermann on this one. Still, there was one part of Olbermann's monologue, quoted below, that bothered me a bit.

I don't usually post on the weekends. But, in managing Citizen Orange's comments, I came across the tactics of another despicable anti-migrant troll. Not only is this troll so cowardly that IT refuses to identify ITself, but this troll has engaged in misrepresenting ITself as one of Citizen Orange's beloved bloggers.

Pretending to be yave begnet, this troll has engaged in spewing anti-migrant and twisted logic, which I refuse to answer, because of the underhanded way in which IT has identified itself. This is the sort of hate that we have to confront online, and in real life. It is in anonymity that we are confronted with the true hate and cowardice of the anti-migrant viewpoints that are responsible for the suffering of millions.

I've written this post and published these cowardly comments, and expose the world to what the pro-migrant blogosphere has to confront on a daily basis.

There’s this thing about rich people.They need poor people to work for them.In this country, often those poor people are
immigrants.Some of those immigrants may
not have their papers in order.But the
richer you are, the harder it’s going to be to avoid employing some immigrant
labor that is not work authorized(a concept that didn’t even exist in the U.S.
until 1986).

"First Mitt
Romney was FOR illegal immigrants working on his lawn, and then he was
against it, then for it, and now I guess he's against it again,"
spokesman Todd Harris said in a statement. "Sounds like his position on
amnesty."

Rather than just sit back and laugh at the political theater, I thought I'd delve into a deeper analysis of Romney's hypocrisy on this issue.

When it comes to race baiting, Lou Dobbs is a hypocrite. Check out this new video that I've put together where Lou Dobbs gives a pass to a staunch racist at forum in Illinois. Then, just a day later, he accuses Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) of race baiting on his show. This and Gutierrez didn't even mention race once! I can't help but see hypocrisy when Dobbs gives a pass to an anti-migrant racist in his forum at the same time that he constantly calls out pro-migrant advocates for race-baiting on his show.

Dobbs's popularity results from filling the vacuum spineless establishment Democrats are leaving in their wake. In the absence of strong progressive leadership, Lou Dobbs has been able to twist populist rhetoric into anti-migrant hate and economic irrationality.

Make sure to sign the petition to boycott Lou Dobbs over at boycottdobbs.us . Let him know that the people he claims to represent will not stand for his harmful rhetoric. His words divide and degrade human kind.

I also want to thank Max and the Marginalized for giving me permission to use their music in the video. Check out their myspace page to hear more music. Their only asking for a donation of 50 cents for each downloaded song. Not bad for quality work like this. The lyrics for Dobbs-inspired song, "Weeknights at Six" are below.